Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Day 1

Waiting for 2 hours was tiring so while we hopped on the plane we were not in the best of moods, feeling annoyed and felt like starting this adventure tomorrow. The plane was not really inviting with the torn seats and the parachute kits were not up to the standards, and a few more minor problems. The metal door had an irritating sound with the crank screeching until it was locked (you could just tell it was shut when the screeching noise had stopped and our ears were relieved). We all leaned to one side as we turned to entered on to the straight, to take off. Before lift off they told us a few safety rules, and then we began to gain speed . I scurried to the closes window pushing and shoving to see the amazing view.2 seconds after the flight instructions finished we began to gain speed and we slowly kept on sinking further and further back in to the seat as we got to high speed. We had lift off and soon after the pilot announced that we could rome around the plane. So we all shared looking at the view of Raglan. 1 minute later the view had disappeared and we all settled in for a 20 minute ride.

As we sat it was one of those awkward, silent moments. Then Asser stood up and looked out the window and spotted a island. He had a look at his picture he kept of Matainui and compared the picture to the island and looked very similar. Asser warned the others and so they got prepared for the free fall jump. We told the co-pilot to circle the the island until we were ready. Everybody looked nervous to free fall 6000 metres (but who wouldn't be nervous for a their first time to free falling). After we were all ready the automatic door opened and we felt a rush of wind push against all of our bodies. A bunch of our group was lining up for the jump so we followed (me 2 nd to last in line with Ben behind me). As we waited patiently for the green light to turn on everybody checked each others back packs were locked up and our parachutes were working.

As soon as we finished, the light turned green and we saw Grayson fall out the plane plummeting to Earth followed by James 10 seconds later. Looking out the window we saw two little dots fading away. We gradually got closer to the door and after Asser went I was next. I yelled good luck over all the windy noise as he flew out. Where Asser's muddy footstep's were 2 seconds ago I stepped into them to jump of the edge where I saw nothing but trees and wildlife on a small island from a far distance. I took tiny steps until I fell over the edge feeling a heap of wind pushing my cheeks creating them to jiggle around. I had never felt anything like this before and enjoyed the thrill, but I noticed is was about time to pull the cord and ripped it hard and a shadow appeared above me. The straps pulled tight across my chest as I started to hover down to the beach seeing everybody taking off their parachutes and storing them. Ben ended up right next to me when we landed because he pulled his parchute late. Everybody saw us coming an waved then came towards us as we landed to help out. Everything went to plan so far and after a rest we relised that the sun was fading away. and so we used the rest of the light to make our tents and got to bed early for the next day.